Laura McKenna is a writer of fiction and poetry and worked for many years as a child psychiatrist. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from UCC, 2019.

Words to Shape my Name , her second novel was a finalist at the 2020 Novel Fair and longlisted for the 2019 Bath Novel Award, one of 26 out of over 1300 entries. Her first (unpublished) novel was also a past Novel Fair finalist and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award and the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize in 2016.

Laura’s short fiction has won the Penguin/RTE Guide award, was shortlisted in the Doolin short story competition among others. She has been nominated twice for a Hennessy Literary Award in poetry and also for a Forward Prize (single poem). In 2019 she was awarded a John Montague Mentorship Bursary from the Munster Literature Centre.

Laura also has an MA in Creative Writing from UCD. She is a past recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary, and a Tyrone Guthrie Bursary from Cork County Council.